Picking

[SpyGuy]

This one has been mulling about in my head for awhile and with all the talk of theft and furniture stealers..while here goes:

When playing a burglar I at first noticed how hard pick was to practice.  Not because you fail alot, because it alot of circumstances you can't fail.  Your prospects of failure at various points seems almost nil, and occasionally you get lucky and fail a few times without getting arrested before you can pick better locks.

That was annoying for awhile, until I found out that it does raise, albeit sometimes slowly for those impatient few among us, but progress is constant.  Then I started noticing a problem...where do you practice?

In order to raise pick you need to practice it.  In order to practice it you need to pick a lock.  When searching for locks to pick, likely there will only be a few to suit your needs for practice.  On occasion you'll luck out and find a place with some PC gear in it you can loot.  So far, so good.

I considered myself a decent burglar as far as RP goes, I'd grab a few expensive items, maybe a few smaller ones that looked interesting, then slink out and close the door behind me and walk off quietly.  The only problem was, I couldnt lock the door behind me.  I later found going back to the places (which I had unlocked and am fairly sure werent relocked because the owners seemed never to come and the game hadnt crashed since) were completely looted of furniture, brooms, etc. etc.

Is it possible to have locks reset every couple of virtual days, as the owner is really in the VNPC environment, or in some cases dead.  This would lead to more locks for burglars to pick open (not necessarily a good thing or solution to the problem) but also in many ways prevent the same house from getting ganked by half a dozen people.  Its not always that one PC burglar stealing from you, its the 10 people that have come in since he unlocked the door.

To ward off any possible objections about "don't worry about your skills", this was the only way I ICly knew how to practice the skill.  I would occasionally go around at times I felt it appropriate and sneak into houses in the city.  Virtually there are thousands, by code there are only a handful you can actually pick the locks on.  One of my goals for the character was to have him at a level where he could pick good locks, just as a fighter spars to get good at his skills.  If there is a better way to practice the skill, I have my ears open...you know what I mean.

[Mr.Camel]

There is the possiblity of the lock resetting while someone is inside the house. Otherwise, I think it is a good idea.

[Vettrock]

Or perhaps allowing those with the pick skill to lock the door as well?

[wizturbo]

Or perhaps allowing those with the pick skill to lock the door as well?

From a realism standpoint, this is possible.  You just turn the lock the opposite direction you would when your trying to open it.  However, I have -no- idea how a Zalanthas lock works.  Why?  Modern locks are made of metal, and I highly doubt all Zalanthas locks are.  Without metal, the modern lock design would probably not work, so who knows if the Zalanthas lock is able to be relocked with a lockpick.

From a balance standpoint however...I think being able to relock doors would be tremendously powerful.  So powerful in fact, I'd say burglars should be a karma class if this change was put into place.  But thats just my two cents on the matter.

[SpyGuy]

The only problem with relocking it is that it could possibly lead to spam picking to have someone raise their skills by just sitting there any typing "pick door" "plock door"...rinse and repeat.

I might suggest doing that, lowering the rate at which pick goes up and to make locking something with the pick skill have a chance to break those fragile bone lockpicks.  Its not too unreasonable to pick the door, lock it behind you (with the same chance of failure and on a crit fail you break the pick) and come back the next week or so to scope out the place again.  Though more IC would be to have several houses that you picked in rotation.

Something to prevent n00b B from standing infront of one door and skill spamming until he fails a few times, goes to do some tavern RP, then repeats the skill spamming.

[Miee (not logged in)]

Or a slight, but random chance that a soldier notices your odd behavoir.

[Callisto]

Just set it as a double command.

>pick lock
You unlock the door.

>pick lock
You lock the door.

No idea how hard it is to code, though.

[Agent_137]

have locks relock themselves? like a virtual person locks it?

[Vettrock]

The problem with that is you can walk in an open door, and then suddenly be locked in.

[Larrath]

Make it only lock itself after two hours of being empty.

Why not have it relock after X time, but only if nobody is currently in the room?

[SpyGuy]

That feature may be hard to code, but it'd be useful if it were possible.  Maybe someone will look into it, I just hope that this would allow good burglars to do a good job rather than doing their job and then letting in 9 kinds of squaters.

[Callisto]

Auto-lock? I don't like it.

[ashjpd]

To hard to code, not exactly needed right now, maybe in a few real life years you can ask for something like that.

[Agent_137]

tell that to the people who get everything but the kitchen sink jacked.

[Anonymous]

Ha, I would love to have your problem SpyGuy.  I've played several burglars and never managed to find a lockpick even once.  If it's been this hard with the burglars I have played before, I'd hate to find one then die.  If they really are this hard to find, I'd probably make every burglar after the one that found where lockpicks are already know where they are, so I could use that info again.  Seriously, good luck with the burglaries.

[Vettrock]

tell that to the people who get everything but the kitchen sink jacked.

You mean they actually left the kitchen sink in the apartment?

When I owned an apartment, everytime I logged on the door was open and unlocked, and if I left anything, it was gone.

Yes I could probably have upgraded the lock....but I ended up dying some time before that.

[ashjpd]

tell that to the people who get everything but the kitchen sink jacked.

Then I would be telling that to myself. Trust me, I know how it is, in fact, I even found one of the cheapest ways to rob a place, and I tend to use it when I have a certain character, it is actualy quite nice, but quite mean to the person owning the apartment at the same time. As much as it sucks, it is armageddon, deal with it. I have been robbed more then I would like to at all, even with the best locks up, so it is cheap, but, things happen.

[Angela Christine]

You can't upgrade the locks, they won't do it anymore because it isn't fair to the burglars for every lock to be uber.  You can try to get a more expensive room with a better lock, but that has its own set of problems.

As others have mentioned, it isn't necessarily the thiefie guilds that are doing the full cleanouts.  Once that door is unlocked, especially if they leave the door open as well as unlocked, your neighbours can walk in and carry all of your furnature to their apartment.  That includes NPC neighbours.  If the door is open wandering NPCs WILL wander in, and some of them are programed to pick up things left on the ground (they wouldn't take things out of a chest, but they would try to pick up the whole chest).

Suggestion:  If you pick a lock to get in, have the courtesy to close the door when you leave.  That will cut down on unskilled opportunists cutting into your buisness.  Why make things easier for the competition?  You might even close the door and then pretend to fiddle with some keys and pretend to lock the door, so that anyone one watching (including vNPCs) will be more likely to assume you were supposed to be in there.

As for stopping Kitchen Sink Robberies, I have a stratagy for that which I haven't had the chance to try.  ALWAYS log out in your apartment, and before logging out pick up as much of your furnature as you can.  A thief can't steal the bed you are "sleeping" in if you pick up the bed and take it with you when you log out.  The bed isn't missing, it is just a virtual bed now, the same way your character is temporarily virtual.  When you log back in you drop everying with your cool custom drop ldescs, and the balance is restored.  Unless you are a half-giant you probably won't be able to lift -everything-, but at least a few things will be safe.  This does not prevent burglars from stealing those items, they just have to do it while you are logged on and the items are non-virtual.  So the house cleaners can still take everything, they just have to have good timing to do it.  


AC